Reminder:
"This is spoken English."
"This is spoken Czech."
This is a thought.
Previously: When we picked up an alien escape pod (in chapter 108), Carson decided to help the dying lady inside (in chapter 109). Oh, and Anna's also found herself in a bad situation, too.
Chapter 112. Where is She?
"One of them must have damaged the backups…" Radek consulted the nearest available tablet just sitting around in the Central Tower. It was working just fine, on battery power. Notoriously would only last a few hours because most of them were awful at holding charges.
"We've lost everything?" Caldwell demanded.
"Shields, communications, long-range and biometric sensors," Rodney rattled off like an auctioneer.
Caldwell started, "The sensors from the Daedalus—"
Radek shook his head as the colonel started talking, interrupting, "Subspace communications, too."
Caldwell pressed his lips together for half a second before addressing Rodney. "Get down to the Power Room, Doctor. Restore primary systems."
"I can't just go down there!" Rodney objected. "In case you forgot, marines may have been injured! What do you think they're going to do to me; you really—"
"I will send two of my people along with you." Caldwell nodded toward two of his own marines dressed in the standard fatigues common on Earth.
Rodney paled. "How do we know Beckett or Elizabeth isn't down there waiting in ambush?"
"They're not trying to kill us," Radek said. "They're trying to kill each other."
Rodney shot Radek an acidic glare. "If you're so unconcerned, why don't you go?"
Radek glanced at Colonel Caldwell, even though he knew that Caldwell would never accept a reasonable alternative to his orders. A panicked unrest had been lingering in the back of his mind since he woke up from his unnecessary nap, and he knew it wasn't just Elizabeth and Carson running around the city trying to shoot each other. It was something else, something deeper and darker and he didn't want to think about it.
"Colonel, the faster we get this done the better, and I think Doctor McKay might be better to monitor the power controls from here while someone else goes to the Power Room," Radek suggested as quickly as he could so no one would interrupt. "I also have a request, please."
Caldwell rolled his eyes as he slid his gaze from Rodney to Radek. "What is it, Doctor?"
"My daughter—I—I haven't been able to contact her, and—"
If Radek didn't know any better, he might have said that Caldwell looked even the slightest bit sympathetic. "I understand. Get down to the Power Room," he said with a nod at Radek and another at Rodney. "Both of you. We'll take care of the rest from here." Caldwell gave a silent look around the control room, landing on another pair of Marines.
At a nod from their colonel, the Marines jogged away.
Rodney looked at Radek and then the Marines. Radek couldn't tell whether he was angry or just terrified, but he shouted, "Go!" to the Marines as he walked across the Control Room toward the nearest staircase.
Radek shuffled after Rodney, hoping that the power room wasn't in too bad a state. It occurred to him that Phebus and Thalen didn't care what happened to the rest of them on Atlantis, since they were dead anyway. They had nothing to lose if they couldn't use the Stargate or open most doors or communicate with the Daedalus.
Of course, it was only a matter of time before the Daedalus realized something was wrong down here. Couldn't very well go back to Earth without their captain on board.
Rodney didn't speak until they reached the power room. "I'm sure Anna's fine," he said as he went to the control panel.
"Of course, she is," Radek agreed.
It would be… unlikely that she'd be in the line of fire. Atlantis was a big place. But, then, the Atlantis expedition only went few places in the big city. They all had the same paths they traveled every day, and those were the same paths others traveled.
"Anyway, Phebus and Thalen don't seem all that interested in shooting us. It's mostly each other."
"Doctor?" one of the Marines wondered a bit harshly.
"Working!" Rodney said. "Radek, would you—"
"Already working on it." Radek reached into his jacket for the short connecting wire he'd decided a few weeks ago to start carrying. The longer ones hanging off his belt looked too much like a bullwhip, and Reed had threatened to start calling him Indiana Jones. Radek was just getting used to being called Radar.
What had happened to Lorne, Coughlin, and Reed? They had to be okay—there was no way Carson or Elizabeth alone would be able to take out all three of them.
Radek turned to the control panel and looked up to see it riddled with holes.
"The good news is that the ZPM is intact," Rodney was saying to Colonel Caldwell over the radio.
"And the control system's been damaged," Radek said, trying to keep his voice level despite the instant irritation. Why couldn't terrorists like Thalen and/or Phebus leave the computers alone?
Caldwell didn't answer for a second. "How soon until it's operational again?"
"I just got here! I have no idea!" Rodney snapped.
"Report when you can."
Radek looked at Rodney, and Rodney looked back. "Right," Rodney sighed, gesturing weakly toward the far wall's inert systems indicators. "Well, do what you can with that."
Radek nodded and picked off a dangling bit of metal from the panel. He had the brief thought to just leave now, go to his quarters to make absolutely sure Anna was there. She wouldn't be there, but it was possible. Rodney wouldn't have anything to say about it, but the two Marines with them might.
Obviously none of them had any children.
Or maybe they did.
But none of them would go and take their children to a war zone, now, would they?
#
Anna held her breath behind her boxes. She knew one thing for sure. She wasn't going out until she saw Radek. He would eventually come get her… If he knew where she was. Scratch that—she wasn't going out until everyone else was gone. Elizabeth included. There was just something off about this whole thing.
A door opened. Anna strained to hear footsteps. One set was heavy, like military. The other… wasn't. It just wasn't, but it wasn't a shuffle like science, either. Even Rodney shuffled. Especially in the dark.
"Stay back, Beckett." Ronon's voice. Why was Doctor Beckett with him?
"Aye…"
"She's not here," Ronon said. "Keep moving."
Anna held her hand over her mouth. Ronon wasn't super-human, probably, but he was smart and really aware of his surroundings. He could probably hear her breathing from across the room. But… well, which she were they looking for? Surely not Anna.
Maybe he was looking for Anna. That sounded like something Radek would do in the event of a lockdown. Send out the cavalry looking for her. On the other hand, Elizabeth was carrying a gun.
Why was there a lockdown?
The room seemed to explode in gunfire a few seconds later. She heard a stunner fire, followed by more gunfire and a thump on the ground. Footsteps ran away and someone was hit, judging by the heavy breathing. It seemed about the only thing she could hear.
Anna leaned out from behind her box. Ronon? Ronon was shot?
… By Elizabeth?
Doctor Beckett stood over Ronon, suddenly decidedly not much like Doctor Beckett at all. "Sorry, friend. I guess they're not here. And you let her get away." He pitched the weapon away, but suddenly stopped. He glanced up toward Anna's hiding spot. "Well, what do we have here?"
She clapped her hand back over her mouth, but it didn't hide her sharp breath.
Ronon tried to take advantage of Doctor Beckett's distraction by grabbing for his gun, but Doctor Beckett stepped on his wrist. Ronon grunted in pain, but looked even more disturbed at the sight of Doctor Beckett handling his blaster. Anna was pretty disturbed about that, too.
With a whirl, Doctor Beckett leveled the weapon at Anna.
"Come on out."
Anna crawled out from behind her box.
Ronon rolled his eyes—whether it was voluntary or not, she guessed she'd never know. "Anna," he tried to say. "Anna, no—" He coughed and then glanced down toward a stomach wound that Anna only just noticed. Blood slid down the side of his shirt and onto the floor.
"Oh. Hello, Anna," Doctor Beckett said. Nonchalant, with Ronon bleeding on the floor. "Don't be scared."
"Don't trust him," he rasped. "He's not—"
"Not the doctor, no," Beckett finished, jutting the weapon toward Anna. Just in case Anna didn't understand the weapon was, indeed, pointed at her.
Anna flinched, for a second sure that he was going to just shoot her.
What did Ronon's blaster do to a person? She'd only seen what it did to paper targets, and… whatever it was, it wasn't nice.
Was he going to kill her?
"But I'll tell you what," Doctor Beckett continued, except this time it was abundantly clear it was not Doctor Beckett. The warmth in his voice, gone. Not like Doctor Beckett at all. "He's screaming inside my head right now like you wouldn't believe."
Anna shivered involuntarily, trying not to whimper helplessly. It didn't work. "Prosím," she whispered. Please what? Don't kill me? Let me go? "Prosím, ne."
"Don't worry." Beckett touched the radio hooked in his ear. "Medical team to the south fork cargo hold. You have a man down."
Doctor Beckett started to walk away, but paused to turn back to Anna. He motioned impatiently with Ronon's gun. "Well, go on. You probably want to lend him a hand. Wouldn't want him to bleed out."
Anna blinked at terrified tears, scurrying over to Ronon like a cornered rabbit. What was she supposed to do to help him? She'd never seen so much blood… "Do prdele—Ronon," * she whimpered when Doctor Beckett walked away. "Ronon, what do I do?"
"You—" He grunted and stared at the ceiling. Didn't finish. Maybe he didn't know either. He held his hands over his wounds, squeezed his eyes shut. "You gotta get out of here."
She'd seen things like this on television and in movies. Never so much blood, though. It never looked real. She didn't know that before now. This looked real.
"Ronon, oh, no." Anna slid closer to his head when he finally spoke, then had a thought. "No, I—I have to… I—?"
Pressure.
That was good for bleeding, right? Pressure wasn't good for broken bones. She glanced around for something to put pressure on the wound with. Wounds? She could hardly see through her tears. "I need to stop the bleeding."
"Gun." Ronon gasped.
Anna shook her head. "Doctor Beckett took it. I need to… něco, něco. ** What do I do? Please."
Ronon gritted his teeth and tried to pull himself along the floor toward the wall. The viscous pool on the floor showed smudges where he dragged himself along. Maybe centimeters. He was losing so much blood… Two seconds later he stopped trying, rolling onto his back and gasping for breath.
"Ronon?" she asked again, trying and failing to keep from sobbing uncontrollably.
"Get out of here, Anna—go."
Anna wanted to say that she wouldn't—but she couldn't. She couldn't stand. She didn't know how she was managing to breathe. Her hands shook hard as she slid closer to his side and pulled on the tears in his shirt. There wasn't anything remotely bandage-like around here. She wrung her hands on the edges of her shirt for a few seconds before she realized.
She slid out of her t-shirt. Her sports bra underneath was all sweaty, but probably not from her run. This was going to hurt… She clenched her jaw and slapped the shirt on his belly where blood bubbled up through his punctured shirt.
He didn't even react, except his arm slid off his torso to rest on the ground beside him.
"Ronon," she sobbed, holding her t-shirt as steadily as she could. Her hands hot and shaking, her pant legs drenched and sticky. "Please say something." Did dead people bleed? "Please, Ronon. Ne, ne, ne, ne. Pomozte—někdo—! Pomozte." *** Why wasn't somebody here yet? When would somebody be here?
#
"We're here, sir." The voice of some nameless Marine came over the radio, pretty well interrupting Radek's concentration in the ZPM room.
Rodney was right, though. They needed to stay on the shared channel. It was the best way to make sure communication was quick. Quick mattered, because there were crazy people running around with guns. A chorus of voices continued afterward, announcing that the area was clear.
"It's Ronon, sir."
Rodney's work stopped for a second, but quickly resumed.
"Get him to the infirmary, now," Colonel Caldwell ordered, even though it sounded to Radek like the Marine had more to add.
"And the girl, sir. That doctor's daughter."
"What?" Radek nearly dropped his pair of pliers. Even Rodney paused his work long enough to look up at him from across the room. "I'm sorry, Colonel—my daughter? Anna's there? Is she okay?"
For an agonizing moment, the Marine didn't answer him. Instead, he asked, "Are you hurt?" and the pause was near infinite. "She looks uninjured, sir," the Marine reported finally, even though his announcement wasn't as definite as Radek would have liked. His commentary on her appearance said she probably didn't speak—that wasn't cheering.
"Thank you, Lieutenant," the Colonel said. "Get them both to the infirmary."
With an affirmative, the Marine continued to give instructions to his team.
Radek wasn't listening. "Colonel—" Radek interrupted himself and spun toward Rodney. "Rodney, I have to go." He didn't wait for Rodney's approval before walking toward the door.
Rodney waved him off, his face once again turned down toward the ZPM's control system. "Yeah, yeah, go."
Czech Things
* Do prdele = "oh, shit," basically
** néco = something
*** Ne, ne, ne, ne. Pomozte—někdo—pomozte. = No, no, no, no. Help (me?) someone help.
A/N: I imagine it would have been downright cool and terrifying had Carson been the one to house Thalen for a day. Why? Because Thalen would be using Carson's good ol' Scottish accent most of the time, except right here in this scene where he'd switch to the actor's standard accent. I get shivers just thinking about it.
In other news... I'll get my life together someday.
Thank yous & other
Brubi007- Ah haha, thanks for making it as far as you did, then. I thought the fact that it takes five chapters to even introduce Anna would be a dead giveaway. Different strokes for different folks, though, I guess; since some others seemed to like the length of time spent on Doranda. After all, "one does not simply walk into Project Arcturus," or something like that.
To be fair, I probably should put "beats dead horses" in the story description, huh?
Next time: Panic.